In the oil and gas industry, gas lift technology uses an external source of high-pressure gas for supplementing formation gas to lift well fluids. Typically, in the production of oil from oil wells by gas lift systems, gas separated from the oil is compressed by a compressor to increase its pressure and recycled for further production of oil. After the compression stage, the gas is returned to the production wells as gas lift gas. In typical gas lift systems, fluids produced from the separation process are routed into haul off tanks on the surface. The fluids from the haul off tanks are collected by haul off trucks. Every time the fluids from the separation process are released to the haul off tanks during a dump cycle, gas emissions are released into the atmosphere. Further liquids that are stored in the haul off tanks continually turn to vapor, releasing gas emissions to the atmosphere.
It is desirable to have methods and apparati configured for gas lift separation and fluid storage which reduce or eliminate atmospheric emissions and the need for haul off trucks.